Better than a wife?

It had been a long day of traveling when brothers Franz and Kurt

Wisner found themselves where no vagabonds want to be: stuck in a

customs office trying to negotiate their Saab over the Syrian border.

They had spent a half an hour passing out $20 bills to make their

way into the office of the head official, a stoic fellow who seemed

irritated the pair had interrupted his viewing of the 2000 U.S.

presidential debate between George W. Bush and Al Gore.

Sensing an opportunity, Wisner slowly rose and grabbed a picture

of himself posing with Bush, taken at a fundraiser during his former

corporate days at the Irvine Co.

The official, apparently a Bush fan at the time, was so impressed

he sent the men through, waiving the exorbitant fees required to take

a car into the country.

“That trick doesn’t work in Syria any more,” Franz Wisner joked

Tuesday. “At the time we also carried a picture of Al Gore. We were

bipartisan vagabonds.”

Colorful stories like this make up Franz Wisner’s book “Honeymoon

with My Brother,” the true tale of a Corona del Mar man abandoned at

the altar who decides to take his brother along on his prepaid

honeymoon.

That trip turned into whirlwind world tour for the pair, who

trekked across the continents for years, romancing women in the Czech

Republic and chucking their guidebooks in Vietnam for a more local

taste of culture.

On Oct. 20, the pair will be appearing at the Huntington Beach

Central Library to promote the book and talk about how their journey

around the world changed their lives.

“It felt good to shed everything,” Franz said, recalling how he

sold his beachside home and sports car to help pay for the trip. “I

spent my whole life accumulating. You get into that upward climb and

it starts to become addicting, it’s a pattern that’s hard to fight.

This trip helped me to begin to shed those layers. To realize the

importance of the simple life.”

Before his life-changing trip, Franz Wisner worked as a lobbyist

for the Irvine Co. His brother Kurt was a self-proclaimed slumlord in

Seattle.

Franz said his almost-marriage to the woman identified as Annie in

his book was his attempt to complete his “perfect life,” or so he

thought.

Just three days before the big event, she broke things off,

crushing his heart and sending him into a tailspin that sent him

traveling around the world, spending any free moment talking about

his ex.

“A lot of people ask me, ‘Do you still love her?’” Franz said. “Of

course I do. Without her there would be no ‘Honeymoon with my

Brother.’ It would just be ‘Honeymoon with My Wife,’ and no one wants

to read that.”

Although it took months to get a publisher to buy the book, within

weeks of publication “Honeymoon with my Brother” became a hit. Within

weeks the pair were invited to appear on “Oprah” and “The Today

Show.”

They scored a photo shoot in Vanity Fair, cover stories in

countless newspapers across the country and a big movie deal with

Sony Pictures to adapt “Honeymoon with my Brother” into a feature

film.

Now they both work full time on projects related to the book,

which is in its eighth printing. Franz handles much of the creative

side, and Kurt sets up book club meetings and does the

behind-the-scenes work.

“We really like doing book clubs and public groups,” Franz said.

“What’s driven the book is word of mouth. Media really brings us nice

exposure, but it’s the readers that really give it legs.”

Since the book has premiered, Franz has met a new leading lady,

actress Tracy Middendorf, and the two were recently married. That’s

left Kurt with a monopoly on the fan mail and groupies. He said he

recently got a letter from a Canadian woman informing him that they

were a perfect match because she had no debt, no kids and more than

$500,000 in the bank.

“I wrote her back and asked her if they were Canadian or American

dollars,” he joked.

The pair also plan to launch another book together, this one a

nonfiction piece about love and romance in the developing world.

Franz said he just got back from a few months in Botswana, studying

marriage proposals that often involved dozens of heads of cattle.

Kurt spent a few months in Brazil, learning about the local

courtship customs.

“I’ve probably interviewed over 100 people -- it’s the way I like

to travel,” he said. “I wouldn’t spend as much time in gay bars in

Rio if I didn’t do this.”

And even years later, Kurt said he’s still not sick of hearing his

brother talk about his ex-fiancee or inspiring people to pick up and

go.

“The rewarding thing is when you receive the e-mails and they say

that they’re going to call their brother to go travel, or connect

with a friend and take a trip to another country,” he said.

“It may seem overwhelming at first, but I tell people to not get

caught up worrying that you need all kinds of money. If you stick to

third-world countries, you should be all right.”